She's a Natural
by Jay-Leigh17
Summary: To Ria Torres, this is all natural. But, as Gillian knows, there is always a price paid when it comes naturally. Now she's watching Ria fight the most unfair of opponents. The memories.   Rating subject to change.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** I got bored the other day, and decided to sit down and watch two seasons of this show my dad mentioned a while back. In doing so, I became familiar with this set of characters. I realize that the things I'm going to write about are not easy for some people to read. Imagine writing it. Actually, no. Imagine living it. Ria Torres did. She's a fictional character, though.

But these kinds of things don't only exist in fiction. Every day, too many children go through things like this, and much worse. So, this story is dedicated to them, those children, in the hopes that maybe one of you will read this, and realize that there _is _something after. You don't always have to lose. I believe in you, even when you don't.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Lie to Me. Nor do I recieve any sort of profit from these stories.

**Extra Information:** This story might have femmeslashy undertones. I'm writing it. Of course they'll be there. But I promise not to let it take away from what the story is really about. How Ria became a natural.

* * *

Ria Torres stuck her head into Gillian Foster's office, waiting for her to look up before entering the older woman's domain, pulling her jeans up slightly and her shirt back down over them.

"That's the third time you've done that today. You need a belt." Foster smirked at Torres, who shook her head, averting her eyes briefly.

"They're just a little loose, they'll be fine." She replied, adjusting her shirt. "Oh, yeah, Loker wants us all in the lab. Some study or something that he wants us to look at." She waited for Foster to nod before turning to leave, tugging at her jeans again as she walked out.

Foster shook her head, grinning slightly as she pulled something out from under her desk before standing to make her way to the lab.

Loker was just finishing setting up as Gillian walked in, catching Torres readjusting her pants again.

"Ria, catch." She spoke and waited for Torres to turn around before swinging the belt gently in her direction.

Ria's eyes widened and her face contorted into a mask of painful emotion as she stepped back, her arms going to her sides, her palms flat against the wall behind her. She composed herself quickly, though, crossing her arms in front of herself.

"You want to tell me what I saw on your face just there?" Lightman spoke in his usual robust manner, paying no attention to the looks on his colleagues faces.

"I don't like belts." Torres answered simply. The clench of her jaw as she finished her statement spoke of more than a simple dislike.

"I think there's more to that story." He swirled his finger in front of her face.

"Don't read me." The anger flashed across her face. It wouldn't have taken a professional – or a natural – to see it.

"Torres!" Lightman called after her as she left the room. Fled the room.

"What in the bloody hell was that about?" Lightman shifted his gaze between Foster and Loker, neither of them missing the genuine concern in his eyes.

Foster pursed her lips and cut her eyes in his direction, following Torres out the door.

"Right. Well, lets get on with it." Lightman said to Loker, turning back to the monitor.

Foster found her leaning against the wall, her eyes were closed, the inside of her right cheek firmly planted between her teeth.

"Ria?"

The young woman opened her eyes, distrust clearly evident in them.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Foster asked.

"There isn't anything to talk about." She kept her voice controlled, her face was clear, impassive.

Foster reached for her arm, but quickly pulled her hand back as Torres flinched away. It wasn't until then that she realized she was still holding the belt. She dropped it to the floor and kicked it several feet away.

"You can talk to me, Ria." It was soft spoken, and the concern in Foster's voice put Torres even more on edge.

"Later. Maybe. I just can't right now." She spoke at last, pushing off the wall and stepping around the belt still lying on the floor. She turned back to Gillian, an apologetic smile on her face.

"I'm a Natural." Ria shrugged, her eyes flashing with the same painful emotions they had displayed earlier.

"That, you are." Gillian whispered as she watched Ria walk away, thankful that Torres wouldn't see the regret she couldn't keep off of her face.

* * *

**A/N:** I've already started working on the next few chapters. They'll be up soon enough. Be patient, though. And review.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** My nephew, that awesome kid, smeared lotion all over my oldest cat, Kovu. I'm procrastinating, because I don't want to give her a bath, so I'm watching Luelle (the younger kitty) try to lick it off, wondering just what it tastes like to a cat. Chicken, probably. And, while doing that, I've finished this chapter. So, thank the nephew and the cats for the speedy update.

* * *

The rest of that day went by entirely way too fast for Ria's liking. That could have had something to do with how she kept getting lost in the past, but she was trying not to think about that.

"You've been a little off today. Are you alright?" Eli asked as Ria entered the lab, Dr. Foster following after a brief moment.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She smiled reassuringly. Knowing what emotions looked like made it easy for her to mask her own, when she wasn't plagued with memories from her past. When she could concentrate.

"I was thinking about grabbing some dinner, since we're about to head out. You should come with me." Loker said, watching her intently, pretending not to see Gillian doing the same thing.

Ria smiled again, softer this time. "I think I just want to go home, relax, and go to bed." Her voice was as soft as her smile.

"Okay." Loker shrugged. "Another time, then."

"Yeah, definitely." Ria said as she watched him walk out of the room, waving over his shoulder at them.

Gillian caught Ria's arm as she turned to leave as well.

"You don't need to be at home alone tonight, Ria."

Her eyes flashed, and she paused only a brief moment before retaliating the only way she knew how.

"I don't need a shrink." Torres spat the words over her shoulder as she turned to walk away. Fleeing, again.

"I'm not here to shrink you." Foster said, stepping in front of the younger woman, standing her ground.

"Then why are you here?" Ria asked, running her fingers through her hair.

"For you." Gillian answered, watching the struggle in Ria's eyes.

She closed her eyes before she could pretend to misread the look on Foster's face, and hoped briefly that the woman wouldn't be there when she opened them. But when she did, Foster hadn't moved, and was still studying her face.

"Fine." She exhaled in a rush. "Just stop doing that."

"Doing what?" Gillian asked innocently, following Ria out the door, but taking the lead on the way to her own car.

"The face thing." Ria replied, happy to disappear into the dark of Gillian's car. Ready for the reprieve of the Foster Eyes on her, however brief it would prove to be.

* * *

"Are you hungry?" Gillian asked as they walked through her front door, Ria first, who paused in the hallway, taking in the house.

"Well, come on." She said, placing her hand on Ria's lower back, leading her to the kitchen. Ria squirmed and moved away, sitting down at the kitchen table.

She put her elbows on the table, lacing her fingers and setting her chin on her hands, and watched as Gillian moved around. It wasn't long before the smell of reheating food permeated the room. Foster turned and leaned against the counter, her hands braced on either side of her hips.

"I hope you don't mind leftovers. Its all I really had." She smiled almost apologetically, and Ria smiled back, shaking her head slightly.

"No, its fine."

Foster made them both plates, sitting Ria's down in front of her, and taking her own across the table. They ate in companionable silence, Foster's eyes on Torres the entire time.

"What?" Ria asked, when she looked up for the third time to see Gillian watching her intently.

"Nothing," She answered, smiling slightly and standing. "Done?" She nodded towards Ria's plate.

"Oh, yeah." Ria stood and rinsed her plate under the faucet, placing it in the dishwasher. She followed Gillian's example and grabbed her drink off the table as they made their way into the sitting room.

Ria, who had never been to Gillian's house, took a moment to look at the books on the shelf before sitting on the end of the couch farthest from the chair Gillian had sat in.

Ria pulled her knees up in front of her and wrapped her arms around them as Gillian addressed her.

"Do you want to talk? Or do you want me to tell you what I see?" She asked.

"Your house is gorgeous." Ria answered.

"You're deflecting." Gillian retorted, grinning as Ria nodded.

"Yes. But it really is beautiful."

"Thank you." Gillian nodded, following Ria's eyes around the room.

"Plus, I thought it would go over better than asking you for some Vodka." She swirled the Coke in her glass around, smirking up at Gillian.

Gillian grinned back, standing and walking to the kitchen, coming back and setting a bottle of Vodka down on the table.

"Careful with this, Torres. Last time you got drunk you tried to shove your tongue down Cal's throat." She paused, then whispered dramatically, "In his shower."

Ria picked up the bottle of Vodka and poured a little into her glass, taking a lengthy sip before she replied.

"Don't worry, Foster. If I was going to put my tongue in your mouth, I would do it sober. Savor the moment."

After a moment, Ria's mouth popped open slightly. That obviously wasn't what she had planned to say.

"Is that right?" Gillian asked, raising one eyebrow and cocking her head slightly to the right, watching Ria's eyes intently.

"Yeah. It is. I'll show you one day." She replied, taking another drink before setting her glass on the table. "When I'm not drunk."

Ria wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, threatening to kiss one of her bosses while attempting to inebriate herself (just days after trying to sleep with her other boss while definitely intoxicated). But she was careful to keep her eyes off of Gillian, so as not to have to see the reaction she elicited.

In doing so, she missed what Loker insisted was the universal signal for 'I want you', and a dilation of Dr. Foster's pupils. Pity, really.

She did not, however, miss the wink that Foster gave her as she grabbed the Vodka bottle to return it to the kitchen. Nor did she fail to notice that when Foster sat back down, she did so on the couch just a few feet away from Ria.

"We were supposed to be talking about belts tonight." Gillian prodded.

"I'm so not drunk enough for this yet." Ria muttered, sighing and leaning back into the arm of the couch.

"How drunk do you have to be?" Gillian inquired, setting her drink down on the table.

"Drunk enough to try to seduce Lightman." Torres replied, finishing off her drink and setting it on the table as well.

Gillian's eyes flashed and the flicker of emotion that ran across her face wasn't something that Ria missed.

"I'm not drunk enough for that, either." She said softly.

"For what?" Foster asked, looking away briefly.

"Whatever it is that you're trying not to let me see."

The silence in the room was uncomfortable, but neither woman seemed willing to break it.

"Maybe if you just asked questions, I'd be able to answer them. I can't promise results, but I know you've got questions. They're swirling around in your eyes."

"Okay. First question. Why are you allowed to read me, but I'm not allowed to read you?"

"I didn't say you couldn't. I just asked you to stop with the face thing. We both know that speech patterns are more you're thing, anyway. And as for me, I can't turn it off. Because for me, the ability to read people is the difference between a bruised arm and a bruised trachea. A broken arm and a broken rib."

Gillian watched the ghost of nights passed sweep across Ria's face, and all she wanted to do was reach out and comfort the other woman. Girl, really. She was just so young. Especially now, with the faraway look in her eyes, a childlike pout on her lips, and the way she was reverting to present tense, as if the threat were in the here and now, not ten years ago. But something told Gillian that if she reached out for Ria right now, it wouldn't matter that she didn't have a belt in her hand, she would still do damage to the poor girl. So she kept her hands to herself and waited for Ria's eyes to clear before continuing with her questions.

"Do you want to tell me where you went just now?"

"Not really." Ria answered, her gaze fixed on something behind Gillian's head.

Gillian nodded and they lapsed into silence again, Ria fighting to stay in the present, and Gillian trying to find the courage to ask the questions that were 'swirling around in her eyes'. Except, asking wasn't the problem. It was listening to the answer that she was sure would prove hard. Knowing that just sitting in silence wasn't helping either of them, Gillian decided she would just have to delve right in.

"Do you react the same way to all belts? Or are specific ones worse?" She asked the question as if she were asking about the amount of peanut butter she liked on her sandwiches. Her thinking was that if she could make it seem less personal, maybe it would be easier on Ria.

Watching as the story played in Ria's mind, Gillian wasn't worried that she wouldn't get an answer. She knew it would take some time, though. But she had all the time it took. She had all the time in the world when it came to Ria.

"Black ones." Her voice was tight, and Gillian wasn't sure if she was concealing anger or trying not to cry. She thought better of asking, though, and just waited for Ria to go on.

"Thick, black, leather ones, with big silver buckles." The torment in Ria's eyes was enough to make Gillian wish she had never asked, had never started this in the first place. But she knew, on the same level, that if it hurt her this much, she needed to talk about it. But needing to, and being ready to, are two very different things, of which they both were well aware.

"We don't have to do this. _You_ don't have to do this. We can watch a movie, or even just go to bed, if you would prefer." She knew Ria was too strong to say she couldn't do something, so Gillian was offering her a way out.

"I would definitely prefer bed. One that is blissfully not empty." She paused, seemingly surprised again at the audacity her mouth seemed to have found itself tonight. Gillian gave her a small smile, that flash in her eyes again, which Ria chose to ignore this time.

"But, I know that I need to do this. And if I'm going to, I'm going to do it now. Because if I stop, I may never be able to start again."

Gillian nodded, and waited for Ria to proceed down memory lane.

* * *

A/N: So, don't expect the next one this soon; it still needs a lot of work done. But, you should review anyway. :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **This chapter was difficult. And I didn't expect to post it any time soon. But, when I sat down to write, this is what came out. So, you get this tonight, so that I'll actually post it.

The italics are Ria's memories. I'm not sure I like the way I had to set this chapter up, but I think I like the overall effect. Let me know if you get confused, though.

This chapter isn't quite rated M, but its a little bit graphic. I won't say its nothing big, because the situation in itself is huge. Its a semi-detailed account of the abuse Ria suffered as a child. Child abuse, and spousal abuse. So, be warned before you read it.

* * *

Gillian nodded, and waited for Ria to proceed down memory lane.

_Its early. He's getting ready for work. She's making his lunch.  
_"_What is this?"_  
"_Your lunch?" Her voice is soft. Its a question._  
"_What the fuck is this?" He's yelling now. There is a crash as something hard hits something hard.  
Its his lunchbox that hit the wall. There is tea everywhere, because the bottles weren't closed properly.  
They're Pepsi bottles. She reuses them to save money.  
He's getting closer to her. She's backing against the wall, fear in her eyes. On her face. In her posture.  
He lashes out. The slap rings, the loudest thing I've ever heard.  
Her head turns with the force, her hair flying.  
I take a step forward, and then one back.  
I want to help. I'm scared.  
His head swings towards me. He has a smile on his face.  
My back hits the wall. My hands are flat against the wall behind me.  
I'm completely vulnerable. There's no fight to it. He won't fight.  
Wrong.  
His hand comes across my face. Hard.  
I don't feel it. I taste blood._**  
Its not her. Its not her.**_  
He jerks me forwards, just to shove me back. Knocks the wind out of me.  
My head falls to my chest. So do my tears. His hand is on my chin. Jerking my face up.  
He's close to me. In my face. Telling me not to cry. Not to be a blubbering bitch like my mother.  
She's on the floor, sobbing in the corner._**  
Its not her. Its not her. Its not her.**_  
I push my chin up, out of his hand. My face is hard.  
So is his hand, across my face again. I feel it this time. It stings.  
My teeth hurt. I bit my tongue.  
He wrenches my arm up, tugging me to my bedroom.  
He tosses me onto the floor and storms out.  
Back to the kitchen.  
Back to my mother. _

All Gillian can think about is that little girl, who can't be any more than five, taking on the threat so that her mother doesn't have to. And as she's thinking, she's looking at that girl sitting on her couch, nineteen years later. How much she's grown. Physically. She was grown up at five years old.

_Its early afternoon. I'm just getting home from school.  
I rush forward, between the two of them.  
She's pregnant with my baby sister.  
He tosses me across the kitchen._**  
Its not them. Its not them. Its not them. Its not them. Its not them.**_  
He jerks me back up by my throat, shoves me against the wall.  
I'm bigger now. Big enough to fight back.  
Young enough to try.  
He's still bigger.  
He shoves me towards the table.  
I fall hard. My ribs hurt._**  
Its not them. Its not them.**_  
I turn to face him. It hurts to stand up straight.  
His fist knocks my teeth together. His rings tear at my face.  
My mother taught me to use makeup. That's good.  
He throws me down, kicks me in the side.  
I'll be carrying my backpack on one shoulder for awhile.  
I don't need a story.  
Nobody asks. _

Gillian is watching Ria. Watching the words fall from her lips, but not really seeing her. Not in the present time. She's seeing her, barely nine years old, fighting off her father again. _Except_, her mind whispers, _Eva's only her half sister_. This isn't even her father. The surprise is all over her face as she realizes this. She wonder's briefly if it was Ria's father in the beginning. There isn't time to ask before she's launched into another memory.

_Its late. Past midnight.  
Eva's crawling into my bed, a tattered old Bible in her hands.  
I wonder where she found it, and that's when I hear them.  
The shouts that mean he's awake. And drunk.  
They're in the living room. We're in the back.  
Still, I can feel the thump as she hits the wall.  
Eva is pushing her way into my arms. Shaking._  
"_Please God, make my daddy stop."  
That's why she has the Bible.  
I pull her close, bury my head in her hair.  
She smells like my mother.  
I'm still young enough to think that this will stop.  
She's five, six at the oldest.  
She's praying to God to make it stop.  
She looks at me, her eyes swollen. Too afraid to cry.  
That's okay. So am I.  
I tell her about how we're going to go away.  
How I'm going to take her far away and he won't be able to touch her._  
"_Can Mommy come?" I nod, but she doesn't see.  
It doesn't matter._  
"_God will protect us, right Ree? Save Mommy?"_  
"_Yes." I say softly.  
There's a crash as he puts her through the dining room table.  
I'm old enough to know that it will never stop.  
I stop believing in God._

It isn't lost on Gillian just how much that one experience changed Ria. How she lost not only her innocence, but her belief in anything bigger. Any reprieve. Anything good. She wonders how old Ria was the last time she cried. She asks, and believes it when she hears that its been nineteen years.

_Little sister went into Daddy's room again.  
She's not allowed to do that. It doesn't matter that she was looking for Mommy.  
Mommy isn't the one who found her.  
She's standing in front of the couch, her arms braced on the arm.  
He's taking his belt off.  
The black one. With the silver buckle. The thick, leather, one.  
He lashes out at her. Once. Twice. Three times._  
"Would you leave her alone already?"_  
My mouth is open, its my voice, but I don't remember deciding to talk.  
He turns, looks at me. Steps towards me.  
I'm big enough to fight back. Old enough to know not to. Mad enough to try.  
God won't save her. Maybe I can.  
She's my baby sister.  
This isn't the first time I've fought for her.  
This won't be the last time.  
He comes at me. Pushes me. I push back. He stumbles.  
He's mad. I push him again. Harder. He crashes into the counter behind him.  
I step back, away from Eva. When he comes at me, he won't be able to get to her.  
He's more than mad now. He shoves himself up, towards me._**  
Its not her. Its not her. Its not her.**_  
The belt hits my legs. I trip. His hands come together around my throat.  
The buckle is cold, on my chin. I claw at his hands. Draw blood.  
He lets go, and I dash across the room, into the kitchen. Down the hallway.  
He follows, swinging the belt after me. The buckle catches my hip. My ribs. My back. My shoulder.  
I reach the end. Don't turn around fast enough. Nowhere to go.  
I face him. Just in time to see the belt coming for me.  
Watch it as it gets closer. Don't even try to duck._**  
Its not her. Its not her.**_  
This won't be the first time I'm face to face with his belt.  
This will be the last time._

They sit in silence as Ria finishes. Those, by far aren't all of them. But they're the ones that keep her up at night. The ones she sees when she closes her eyes.

"Was that the last time?" Gillian asks softly, when she's sure that Ria isn't going to start talking again.

"No."

Gillian can't keep the tears in at Ria's whispered answer.

"Don't cry." She's choking on her own tears, trying to keep them back. She's still afraid to cry.

Gillian reaches out, and Ria flinches away. But Gillian doesn't back off this time. She slides next to Ria, taking the younger girl into her arms.

"Somebody should cry. For Eva. For your mother. For you." Gillian whispers into Ria's hair. Still, the younger woman holds onto her anguish.

"Somebody needs to show you that its okay to cry. You're safe here, with me." It only takes Gillian a moment to realize that the tears staining her shirt are not her own anymore. She rocks Ria gently back and forth, letting her cry.

* * *

**A/N: **I think there may only be one chapter left in this fic. I could be wrong, though. Depends partly on what you guys want, and mostly on what my muse decides to do. You do get a vote though. You just can't cast it until you read the next chapter. I have no idea when that will be up. This story is pretty much writing itself right now, but if I tell you I'll have it for you tomorrow, you won't get it until next year. So, we'll see. :) Reviews help a lot, though.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** I'm sitting here, well laying really, on my bed trying to type up the last chapter of my story, and my cat, Kovu (the oldest) has been trying to get comfortable. First, she laid by my side, and then she laid over my right arm, and now she's laying on my stomach, and her big head is right in the middle of the screen. So, I can see the first two, and the last three words of each sentence. I have to lean first one way and then the other to see what I'm not typing. Go Kovu. So if some of this doesn't make sense, blame the kitty.

I just rewatched 'Delinquent' and realized I made a grievous error. It was Ria's father that she shared with Eva. So, I'm going to fix that in this chapter.

* * *

"Ria?" Gillian asked softly, unsure if the girl had fallen asleep. She had been still and quiet for quite a while now, her head in Gillian's lap, Gillian's fingers playing in her hair.

"Yeah?" She felt rather than heard the word, but knew it had been uttered.

"You only ever refer to him as 'he'. But you never distinguish between the two."

"Between the two who?" Ria asked softly.

"You share a mother with Eva?" Gillian asked, confusion written on her face.

Ria sat up, wiping her eyes. "No. Her mother came along after mine. My father was her father."

"I did know that." Gillian spoke softly. "When we helped Eva, I knew that. She said that you took the worst of it, when you came to visit. After her mom died. Her mom that wasn't yours. I knew that. I guess just because of the way it came across. I'm sorry."

Ria shook her head. The apology was unnecessary.

"When her mother came along, she was pregnant. I don't really remember her before then, I lived with my mom. But once she was pregnant with my little sister, it didn't matter that she wasn't _my_ mother. I tried to be over there more, because that was my baby sister, and I would protect her with my dying breath."

"Something tells me that that is more true than you want me to believe."

"Well, I didn't die." Ria muttered.

"I know that."

They sat in silence for a few moments. A few moments turned into a few more.

"You told her you were going to take her away." Gillian spoke softly, almost as if she was afraid to bring it up.

Ria's jaw clenched, as did her fists and she turned her face away.

Gillian reached over and tucked her fingers under Ria's chin, tugging gently until Ria turned back, tears in her eyes.

"Talk to me."

Ria's bottom lip trembled, and when she spoke, so did her words.

"I promised her. And then I turned my back on her. And I talk to her every other day, and she's doing so well now, and I miss her. I've never put much stock in promises, and the only one I made that was ever important is the one I didn't keep."

By the time she finished, she was sobbing.

"But you did." Gillian said, pulling Ria to her once again. "You did get her away. It may not have been when you had planned to, but you got her away. You sent her to a school that would help her get back on track, and she is doing well. You helped with that. You."

She knew that even though Ria was still shaking in her arms, that the girl was listening. She may not believe what she was hearing, but at least she was listening.

Gillian Foster was quite suddenly very aware. The odd thing about it, though, was that she wasn't exactly certain what she was aware of. Looking around, she determined that it was a lot darker than she remembered it being. She shook her head as she realized she had probably fallen asleep, which would account for her being aware of nothing in particular.

She had woken up.

As the previous evening flooded back into her memory, she immediately began to look for Ria. It wasn't until she sat up to see the clock that she found the girl, sleeping on the couch as well, her dark hair fanned out across Gillian's stomach. Gillian smiled to herself, running her fingers through Ria's hair, and settling back into the couch.

Ria woke slowly, turning her head away from the sunlight streaming through the window. As she did so, her lips brushed against soft skin, taking her by surprise. Looking up, she found that she was quite compromisingly positioned, with her head on Gillian's stomach, her body resting between the doctor's legs. Gillian's arms were locked around her shoulders, one of her legs tossed over Ria's. Smiling softly, she braced her arms on either side of Gillian, and moved to push herself up.

It didn't occur to her that Gillian would move with her, wrapped around her the way she was. Not until she was halfway standing, and Gillian's arms were still locked around her neck, pulling the older woman up slightly with her. Ria leaned back down, wrapping her hands around Gillian's wrists, attempting to loosen her hold.

Gillian let Ria remove her hands from around her neck, but she slid them down, and laced her fingers with Ria's, her eyes still closed.

"What if I want you to stay there?" She murmured, a sleepy smile on her face.

Ria tore her eyes away from their interlocked hands, and looked directly at Gillian for the first time since the night previous. She was a bit relieved to find that Gillian wasn't looking at her, so she didn't see the look currently clouding Ria's features.

"I think you're still asleep." Ria said softly, pulling her hands out of Gillian's grasp.

"I think I'm not." Gillian said, just as softly, sitting up and pulling Ria back down onto the couch beside her. She took one of Ria's hands into her lap.

"I think-"

"No." Ria cut her off. "I don't know if I can handle hearing this, not right now." She shook her head, but she didn't pull her hand away from Gillian. Didn't resist as Gillian turned her hand over and traced the lines on her palm.

"I want you to try. Let me start, and if, at any moment, you want me to stop, I will. Can you give me a chance?" Gillian asked, dipping her head to see into Ria's eyes.

Ria's eyes fluttered closed, but she nodded, still wary. She read emotions for a living, figuratively and literally. She'd been seeing things on Gillian's face for the past few weeks that made her stomach flutter in ways she wasn't used to.

But she swallowed twice, kept her eyes closed, and waited for Gillian to continue.

"I think that last night, you told me some things that were hard for you to say. Things that are important. And I'm going to respond with some of my own things that are hard to say, but they are important as well, albeit in a different way."

Gillian paused, waiting for Ria to look up at her. She opened her eyes briefly, just long enough to let Gillian know she was paying attention, and then ducked her head again.

"Ria," Gillian continued her voice getting softer as she progressed. "You mean a lot to me. We've worked together for over two years now, and I'm finding it hard to be content with that."

Ria's head snapped up, her eyes flying open and meeting Gillian's. A bit of a blush lay across her cheek bones, but she kept her eyes level.

"So, what are you telling me? Exactly." Ria asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"I'm telling you, Ria, that in a few weeks, I'm going to ask you on a date." She smiled slightly, watching as the corner of Ria's mouth turned up in what looked a lot like the beginnings of a smile.

"Any particular reason you're going to wait?" Ria asked gently, flipping her hand over and running her fingers along Gillian's wrist.

"Because of last night. Because I don't want it to ever seem like I'm diminishing what you told me, or that I'm taking advantage of you while you're vulnerable. And because I have to confer with Eli about a place good enough to take you." Gillian grinned as Ria smiled.

"What makes you think I'll say yes?" Ria asked lightly, leaning back into the couch, the smile still playing on her lips.

"Besides the fact that I'm doing that 'face thing' again?" Gillian asked, smirking.

Ria nodded, but Gillian didn't answer. She simply looked down, into her lap, at their interlaced fingers.

* * *

**A/N:** So, its finished. And I've left it open to follow it up with a sequel, if you so choose. So, choose. :)


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